


a different path altogether

by exbex



Category: The Royal Romance (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Navel-Gazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:55:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24564196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exbex/pseuds/exbex
Summary: Riley looked across the table at Kiara, and slapped her with an insult that she’d once sworn she’d never use on another woman.
Relationships: Maxwell Beaumont/Main Character (The Royal Romance)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 3





	a different path altogether

**Author's Note:**

> Another tiny fic that diverges from the canon of this universe. Once again I found myself ill after reading a chapter of The Royal Heir. The culmination of Book Two has more than just me shaken, but I have figured out why I am having such a visceral and negative reaction to it. My therapist needs a raise, because she figured it out weeks ago. 
> 
> Anyway, just in case it wasn't clear, this is an anxiety-dump fic, an idfic of sorts, very TRH-negative, and doesn't actually happen to Riley and Maxwell in this universe. I just had to write it so that I could purge, in a sense. Soon we will be back to this universe not being a manifestation of my rage-filled subconscious.

_“Maybe it would have been better if I’d left you alone.”_

Maxwell’s words echoed in her mind, over and over again. And like the lovestruck fool she was, she’d poured her heart out to him on that rooftop, pushing him to confess his feelings for her.

If only she’d followed through on her original plan to bid her goodbyes to all of them in New York. If only she’d called up her case officer the night of the Beaumont Bash and told her she was done. If only she’d taken a different path altogether.

Riley looked across the table at Kiara, and slapped her with an insult that she’d once sworn she’d never use on another woman.

There’s a first time for everything.

Kiara actually had the nerve to tear up. “Riley…”

“I recall you telling me how important it was to have an heir, Kiara. To bring stability to the throne. You were content to tell another woman to use her body as a political device. And then I went into labor, and once again, my body became a bargaining chip. And then my daughter became a bargaining chip. And now you have voted to have my child taken away. You know, the United States government did that to my ancestors. Took their children away as a political move. And now, you’ve done it to me.”

She slid her chair back, and stood up with such force that she knocked it over. The sound of it clattering to the floor seemed to echo.

“Riley….” She’d walked out of the palace and into the garden maze without even realizing what was happening. She could hear Maxwell’s shoes in the grass behind her.

“Riley,” he reached for her arm. “Riley, wait.”

She closed her eyes. She couldn’t face him and say this to him. It was the coward’s way out, but what else was she?

“You lied to me Maxwell. You kept a secret from me. And now your secret has come back to haunt us.”

She opened her eyes, looked into his. “But I’ve kept secrets too. And now it’s time that I stopped lying to you.”

**Author's Note:**

> It has occurred to me that I have made myself something of a hypocrite, seeing as I made Riley sterile in this universe due to she having suffered from pelvic inflammatory disease due to a rape. The U.S. government also has a nasty little history of sterilizing Indigenous women back in the boarding school era, so this series has sort of, kind of become something of a metaphorical commentary or something? When I just wanted to write some fanfic? But when I first decided on that for her, I was only thinking of a way to get her out of having to have a baby she didn't want. Er...it's still all kinds of messed up. But we do write at least partly to work out our struggles with the horrible realities of the world and sexual violence is one of those, and it worked out to allow me to get Riley out of the having-an-heir situation. Because using women's bodies and children as political moves and bartering chips is also one of those nasty little world realities. So perhaps I accidentally made this series into a commentary on the world, but I'm going to keep it, because that's what art is for. And that's what fanfiction is.


End file.
